Kompass – Newsletter Nr. 47 – March 2016 (pdf)

+++ Balkan route closed – up to 15.000 refugees in Idomeni +++ Deal of Turkey and NATO-Operation in the Aegean +++ AntiRa manifestations in several cities +++ 12.3. in Cologne: Our Feminism is anti racist +++ 12.3. Freiburg: For unlimited human rights +++ 19.3. in Hannover: Fight against racist mobilization +++ 2.4. in Bielefeld: Freedom of movement instead of deportation camp +++ Freiburg – Basel, Italy – Austria: Actions at the borders +++ WatchTheMed-Alarmphone: Video clips and campaign newspaper +++ Review: Conference in Hamburg; Safe Passages; 1. March action day against border regime and precariousness +++ Prospects: Defencing from 27. to 29.5. at the Slovenian-Croatian border and Nobordercamp mid of July in Greece; 10. – 12.6. in Leipzig: Welcome to Stay-Summit +++

Dear friends!

7 March 2016 – a new round for polarization. The Balkan route is so to say closed, NATO ships are in the Aegean, Calais vacated, the Asylum package is rushed through and the extreme right-wing persons of the AfD rise – on all levels we are confronted with a racist rollback. The EU-border regime should be straighten up with might and main and the control over the flight and migration movement should be restored at any cost.

But also the social and political resistance is not broken yet. 15.000 people stay in tents and mud in Idomeni. They demand open borders while thousands are looking for new ways to the north. And until now the cross overs to Greece, which has been ongoing the whole winter, are especially braking by the bad weather. Simultaneously up to 2000 activist have meet in Hamburg, mainly self-organized groups of refugees. Never before there were such a good visited conference in Germany, also the antiracist movement is better organized now.

Hard confrontations are foreseeable for the coming weeks and month: heavy defencing actions on the outer borders, fights for the right to stay and socio political and antifascist resistance inside. Whole Europe will become a highly competitive space, the question is how will the continent look like in future? The Research Institute for Flight and Migration express it like this in their worth reading comment:

“The number of migrants in itself is not the problem, also 5 or 20 million would not have to starve and could be provided in a dignified way. The political and medial production shows the importance of the subject and asks questions about the character of the prospective Europe. It will be either the opening of the borders or a fortress of prosperity, it will be either an open society or militarisation and firing order. This questions are asked because the migrants are coming. They move Europe and they don’t will vanish, we have to act!“ („Europe in Limbo“, look at http://ffm-online.org/category/kommentar/)

Let’s get involved, let’s mobilize! For an open Europe from its bottom, by any means necessary!

Your Kompass Team

Kompass – Newsletter Nr. 47 – March 2016 (pdf)

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 45 – December 2015/January 2016 (pdf)

+++ Action Day 18 December 2015 +++ Moving on – One Year Alarmphone +++ Idomeni and the Balkan Route +++ Beyond Welcome: Socio-Political Offensive? +++ Asylum Laws tightened +++ Oury Jalloh-Demo 7 January 2016 in Dessau +++ Commemoration Day from Rabat to Berlin 6 February 2016 +++ Blockupy Conference 5 to 7 February 2016 in Berlin +++ New Journal and Film by Afrique-Europe-Interact +++ Reviews: Refugee Demo Hamburg, Occupation of Sudanese Embassy; School Strike Berlin, 10 Years of Jugendliche Ohne Grenzen +++ Previews: End of February 2016 Refugee Meeting in Hamburg; Transnational Social Strike Action Day on 1 March 2016 +++

Dear Friends!

“Anything is possible, strong social movements can change everything. That’s what we learned once again, through the experiences of our Alarmphone project and in an incredible year of successful struggles for freedom of movement”. These are the first sentences of the introduction to the brochure ‘Moving on – One Year Alarmphone’ (see below), which documents the impressive stories and developments from the entire Mediterranean of this truly historical year.
In 2015 the external borders of Fortress Europe were more than ever being demolished, at first the massive crossings of the Aegean extended into breakthroughs along the Balkan Route, followed by corridors into the very centres of the EU. Along the entire route ‘Welcome’ initiatives were spontaneously established and later on evolved into permanent support structures. To be sure: in September the ‘long summer of migration’ reached its dynamic zenith and now is increasingly being confronted by ‘a winter of reaction’. But even in mid-December the numbers of arrivals in the Aegean are comparatively high, with thousands of people still moving every day through the (controlled) corridor to the north. The most recent struggles at the Greek-Macedonian border moreover show (see below), that the Balkan Route remains a hard-won space. It is far from clear how things will develop there in the forthcoming weeks and then in the spring of 2016, when in all probability the numbers of refugees will start increasing again…

We mentioned it in our last two issues as the main challenge and are therefore more than delighted that in many places the necessity of a ‘Beyond Welcome’ is increasingly being elaborated; that at conferences and in seminars the discussions and first practical activities focus on how to develop common social struggles that go beyond the ‘Welcome’ initiatives. An example is the heading ‘Frankfurt for All – Solidarity City’ of a statement from Rhine-Main concerning the International Day of Human Rights (see below).
The squatting of a house on the same day for the Shelter Project in Frankfurt may at first have failed, but then in Göttingen and later also in Cologne the self-organised appropriation of housing could be maintained (see below).

In early February Blockupy invites people to a conference in Berlin at which, among other things, the possibilities for a socio-political offensive will be investigated jointly with the new citizens. And when these initiatives increase in dynamism, the ambitious call for an action day ‘towards a transnational social strike’ on 1 March 2016 might be well-timed: “We call up all ‘precarity’ workers, migrants and refugees, activists, autonomous groups and unions to turn 1 March 2016 into a day of decentralised and coordinated actions and strikes, by disturbing the regular production and reproduction procedures, by creating an exchange between different labour realities and by making the often hidden conditions of exploitation visible, as well as by attacking the border regime and those institutions that are responsible for this management of mobility and precarity” (see below).
In this sense we already wish you all a very good start of the new year.

In solidarity,
the Kompass team

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 45 – December 2015/January 2016 (pdf)

+++ Europe at the crossroads – Balkan – http://moving-europe.org and http://live.w2eu.info +++ As of 11 November in Lesvos: Sea Watch in operation +++ 11 November in Berlin: Anti-Military Action +++ 14 November in Hamburg: Preliminary Meeting for Refugee Conference and Demo +++ 19 November in Berlin: Refugee School Strike +++ 20 and 22 November in Magdeburg: Networking Meeting for Refugee Women +++ Services for Refugees in Germany +++ Alarmphone is receiving 100 distress-at-sea calls per week +++ Reviews: Jury Jalloh, Ohlauer School +++ Previews: Transnational Social Strike Action Day on 1 March 2016 +++

Dear Friends!

“… Meanwhile an autonomy of migration has evolved, partly as a consequence and continuation of the Arabellion. The new assertiveness of migrants, and the strength with which they enforce their freedom of movement, their right to move, will no be easily crushed by the EU and its policy of fending off migrants….If the Fortress Europe is to be defended, it cannot be achieved peacefully anymore.
Europe is at crossroads: Are hundreds of thousands at the external borders to be condemned to die, to be detained in camps or even to be shot at? … Europe will change, but it must not fall back into the old patterns of deportation, detention and repression. Instead, Europe could open up and allow a process of re-orientation and pluralisation which would be be fitting of the 21st century. …
Will all those people that have welcomed migrants enthusiastically be able to withstand the increasing attacks from the political right and the blowbacks that the next months will inevitably bring? Can we communicate that austerity and precarity goes hand in glove with competition and racist division? And will we be able to develop processes of solidarity and common struggles? Are we ready and willing to not merely ‘integrate’ migrants, but to allow and foster more drastic changes that will also re-align our own lives?…”

http://moving-europe.org is the name of the co-operation project which, with practical emphasis on the Balkan (see below), was initiated at the end of October and with these few lines try to find a political assessment.
And yes, the situation is and will remain contradictory and open.
On the one hand: the right and the racists sense a new opportunity and mobilize, no longer only in Dresden. Simultaneously the EU Governments – and also “Mama Merkel”- step up the control regime at all levels. Accelerated asylum laws, announcement of fast-track proceedings and mass deportations, of deprivation of rights and registration zones: there is no lack of ‘clear terms’ expressing the racist public authority. Reluctant improvements in residence law of recent years are being abolished again with one stroke of the pen.
On the other hand: the rulers know that most of their right-wing populism only feigns legal competence and will remain deterrence rhetoric. The announcement for instance that Afghan asylum seekers will be mass-deported, will not be enforceable, but also rumours can and do make people insecure.
The social movement of migration is and will remain unstoppable though. The institutionalised corridor of trains from Serbia to Austria and then on to Germany is not a favour, but has been set up in reaction to the big flights being unstoppable. “The EU Commission is expecting the arrival of a further three million refugees in Europe until 2017” (5.11.15). This sounds as if fences and the military offer no alternatives and that – at least until now – a majority of the rulers wish to avoid the dissemination of ‘Orbánism’. They know that it would mean the irreversible end of the European promise of freedom.
Besides, the support for refugees from civil society remains perseveringly strong along the entire route: Sea Watch is currently starting sea rescue operations on Lesvos, in the Balkan dozens of local and transnational projects are operative, many on-the-spot welcoming initiatives are becoming permanent, the support chain reaches up to Scandinavia (see http://live.w2eu.info/ ).
In the previous Newsletter we already emphasized it: for the coming months the challenge and outlook are in the development of coordinated, common social struggles. This means the development of a solidarity with the new citizens, which demands the same social and political rights for all. Or as aptly expressed in the closing sentence of the mission statement of the abovementioned project: “In this way we want to contribute to keep open a path into a new Europe – for those that are arriving as well as for ourselves.”

In solidarity,
The Kompass Crew

Kompass – Newsletter Nr. 44 – November 2015 (pdf)

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 43 – October 2015 (pdf)

+++ Refugees Welcome +++ bordermonitoring.eu-liveticker and w2eu-live-blog +++ On Hope: fights of flight and migration on the balcanroute +++ On Challenge: social expansion! +++ Hamburg: Roma-occupation against deportation +++ 2.-3.10. in Frankfurt, Köln, Bremen – Against the unit celebrity, for freedom of movement +++ 2.-4.10. in Poznan: Conference towards the social transnational strike +++ 15.-17.10. in Brüssel: Action days „Oxi! Basta! Enough! Build another Europe!“ +++ 16.-18.10. in München: 2. International border smugglers meeting +++ Planned day X in Oktober! +++ Review: Wittenberg Refugee Bike Tour against racism; Alarmphone receives Taz Panterpreis – Laudation from Mely Kiyak +++

“Drowning, ladies and gentleman,

is a silent process. In contrast to the panic, the crying, shouting of the threating death the last moment of life on the sea is that silent that you dont hear anythting but swell … “ Thats how the disturbing–impressive speech of Mely Kiyak begins which she hold on the 19th of September concering the award of the Taz Panter Price to the Watch The Med Alarmphone.(http://taz.de/Laudatio-von-Mely-Kiyak/!161089/)
Without long political explanations the laudation becomes to a harsh accusation and also to a current one. More than 50 people – women, men, children – have drowned within the last two weeks, only in the Aegean Sea. As a “silent process”, which one wants to scream into the faces of the responsibles ones in Brussels and Berlin.

Dear friends,
In Edirne/Turkey thousands of asylum seekers protested in the last weeks for a flight route overland. They called for a march to the EU-borderline to Greece because they didnt want to risk the dying on sea any longer. The turkish government reacted as a watchdog: Refugees were not allowed anymore to leave their place of registration and to use busses. They were pushed back and supporters criminalised. Many have to take again the route via the sea in direction Lesbos and other greek islands, risking their lives if they want to reach Europe.
But once they made these way over the sea for most of them the way then to Germany or even Sweden is possible within 10 or 20 days. Because the balcan route has been fighted free in the last weeks. No government from Macedonia, Serbia, Croatioa, Hungary, Austria and Germany dare to stop them. The fear of new mass protests give these refugee movements an enourmos power so that between Croatioa and Serbia is practised a huge flight help deal over the green border.

Budapest, the”March of Hope”, on the 4th of September is still in memory, it marked a new peak in the struggle for freedom of movement. Thousands were on their way by feet when they were refused to the trains. “Inspired by that there was a boost of Refugee Welcome Initiatives, linked with a huge medial attention which was not only in Germany and Austria mostly positive for the refugees. Regarding all the ‘ambivalences of hegemony’ – from paternalism or the discourse of usefullness inclusive the distinction into good and bad refugees – we see an increased potential for a transnational anti-racist movement which will flank successfully the ‘summer of migration’ ”, formulates the network transact in a current text. “Keep open the flight routes” is demanded and at the same time there are two more central challenges: The adressing of the flight reasons and the development of comprehensively social fights:
“How does it go on in Europe and in Germany? Will the ruling ones be successful in the containment of the great refugees struggles? Do they make a pact if necessary with right-populist and racist parties and organisations? Succeeds a social division on the bottom?
Or is it possible that the impulse of autonomies and fights of migrations overlaps into other social questions in Europe? May the marches of hope make courage and start another dynamic of social fights in Europe? Freedom, dignity, democracy, social security for themselves and their children … Thats what the people on their flight protest for and they dont get stopped by fences and borders. They want to arrive at the place of their choice, mostly at their relatives and friends all over Europe, learn the language, living good, work, live. “Solidarity for all”, the slogan of emancipatory networks in Greece, is to be picked up to struggle against the attempts of division and to fight at the same time the “normality of austerity”, the politics of social cuttings and precariousness. Payable flats for all through new housing programms, acces for all to health service and education, basic income and increased minimum wage: these social demands can and must be filled with new life, through social appropriation and social strikes, local to transnational. The successful fights of refugees and migrants push the social question again on the agenda. Lets take it, tear down the borders, in all countries, in all heads!”

And so we wish you energetically weeks!
Your Kompass-Team

P.S.: The official motto of 3rd of October, germans “day of unity”, is “overcoming borders”! It was and is pure mockery concerning the deadly policies of ecxlusion for which Germany stands for centuries. But now the slogan fits because every day the slogan is practised by thousands of people who actually should be ecxluded …

P.P.S.: We are very happy that also cheap airlines get into the solidarity
http://ryanfair.org/

Kompass-Newsletter Nr. 43 – October 2015 (pdf)

+++ Border regime overwhelmed, Dublin runs out!?! +++ 6.9.: Freedom Ferry in Tunis +++ 13.9. in Berlin: meeting of Blockupy +++ Back to the borders III on Lesvos +++ Become www.fluchthelfer.in +++ Appeal from FFM concerning the Balkan route and Bordermonitoring.eu on Hungary +++ Nobordercamp Ventimiglia +++ Sea Watch News +++ Alarmphone with new Website and for TAZ Panterpreis +++ Folding map against racist controls +++ reviews: Refugee conference in Hannover, “Fight causes for Flight – stop export of weapons! in Konstanz +++ Previews: 2. – 4.10. in Poznan: Conference about the Social Transnational Strike; 15.- 17. 10 in Brüssel action days „Oxi! Basta! Enough! Build another Europe!“ ; 16. – 18.10. in Munich 2. International smuggler-conference +++

Dear friends!

“The border regime broke down on a broad level. Do we face a historical new situation on the fight for freedom of movement? Or is it just a short summer of migration?…” These sentences came from a new initiative supporting the migration through the Balkan (see below), and in deed the situation became critical by the last weeks and days.
The 22 August 2015 marks a new highlight: in the Central Mediterranean 4400 boat people have been saved – a new record day, while thousands of people land in the Aegean on the Greek islands. Among them are more and more woman, children, old and sick people, see for it the moving report below. On the same day refugees and migrants stop the attempt to lock the Macedonian border militarily: They attack the barb wires so the Military draw off. Only two days later another sensation: the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) made public that the Dublin procedure is suspended “effectively as far as possible” for Syrian refugees. It’s quasi a capitulation because of the persistence of the persons affected, basicly a sign for the growing unenforceability of “Dublin” And another big success of the social movement of migration.

At the same time we know about all the dead and seriously injured persons on this way. Either drowned in the sea or stifled in trucks: the EU border and visa regime forces to use dangerous routes and kills people, again and again. This happens because refugees and migrants can’t use ferries or trains (like in Hungary) see http://www.migszol.com/blog/let-them-board-the-trains
The responsible persons in ministries and bureaucracy, in Budapest but primarily in Berlin should be brought to justice, some day. But this will only happen if the “short summer of migration” stays not alone and that we stop the discrimination into “good and bad” refugee. We also should try to prevent them to stigmatize the commercial escape aid as the cause of the problem (although it’s the consequence of their own policy) and that they start with military strike against the trafficker structures.
For more than 30 years now the EU border regime formed up with more and more money, more control, more FRONTEX. Simultaneously the fortress Europe is in the defensive, the walls are overrun and undercut like never before. At the moment things seems to be possible, also that the fight against the inner and outer borders will get more dynamic.

We can contribute to this especially because there are so much escalation and polarisation. The first is to not give space for Pegida and Nazis. The racist mob, which act in Heidenau, Salzhemmendorf and other places, should fail to dominate the immigration debate. The other thing we can do is to support the self organizing processes of the affected people and to emphasize the right of freedom of movement in the countless support and welcome initiatives.

“Just open the borders” a researcher of migration appeals in the last edition of the magazine “Stern”. In the beginning of August the new campaign starts which supports civil disobedience: “Do escape aid” (in German “Werde Fluchthelfer.in”). In the Central Mediterranean the everlasting slogan is “Ferries not FRONTEX”. Those are three examples which show how to destroy fortress Europe. Detailed description of each below. One sentences of the report to Lesvos summarize it very well: “Every evening we sung and danced with new people, because this border cannot be kept and everything is in movement.”

All the best,
the Kompass-AntiRa-Team

Kompass – Newsletter Nr. 42 – September 2015 (pdf)

+++ 23. – 28.7. in Frankfurt: Project Shelter and precarious station +++ 2.8. in Barcelona: Invisible Borders Action +++ 15. – 27.8: Back to borders III on Lesvos +++ 21. – 23.8.: Break-Isolation-Days: Nationwide Refugee Conference in Hannover +++ On 6.9. in Tunisia: Freedom Ferry Action +++ Sea Watch – First rescue operations and the situation on the Central Mediterranean +++ Ferries not Frontex campaign +++ Route through Balkan, new fence and protests in Hungary +++ How to continue after the tightening of asylum law +++ further reviews: boat action in Strasbourg, one week permanent Syrian protest in Dortmund, the dead arrive…in Berlin +++ Preview: Social Transnational Strike- Conference from 2. – 4.10. in Poznan +++

Dear friends!

Exceptionally we don´t publish in the beginning of the month and on our homepage we had announced briefly already: we decided to release a double edition for July and August. Insofar the introduction is longer than usually because it has happened a lot and it is “high season” regards different perspectives.

First of all and enduring at the outer borders of EU
That there will be more boat people on their way this summer could have been anticipated. Pointedly one could say that the border regime is being overrun by the persistence of migration movement and that the critical public has emerged as an important factor of support. Central Mediterranean as an example: there is a variety of projects in the civil society as eye (keyword Sea Watch) and ear witnesses (keyword Alarmphone) watching, intervening, acting and rescuing – regarding this further down there is some summarizing information and links.

“We have to see the dead. Their final resting-place shall become our political unrest.” These resolute phrases come from the worth seeing mobilization video by the Centre for Political Beauty (see further down) which mid-June in the context of the campaign “The Dead are coming” has called out to a “March of the resolute” to go to chancellery. The question has to be discussed about if and how an enraged remembrance could be possible, if and how such an artist´s action could live up to the situation of the dead´s relatives. That there were more than 5.000 people participating in the protest against the “burocratical murderer in Berlin” was a big sign and the campaign caused at least that the continuous will to let die in the Mediterranean is brought once again into a broader public.

“Ferries not Frontex” keeps on being our main demand against the death-bringing border regime and for legal access to Europe. An according campaign was founded at a meeting in Frankfurt in June (see further down). This campaign has to relate to the entire Mediterranean and thereby also include the Aegean where again and again people capsize on the passage and drown. On the Greek island meanwhile there arrived more people than in Italy, the current situation is an emergency. Who has finally made it to Athens is confronted to closed inner European borders. There are thousands who don´ t have a choice but make their way on the Balkan route through Middle and Northern Europe.
At Greek-Makedonian border as well as at the Serbian-Hungarian border there occurs one drama after another when refugees and migrant encounter brutal border patrol and very soon new fences. At the same time it is remarkably that in lots of places on the route there are built new supporter networks (see reports on Hungary and Greece).

“Dublin is dead actually”
Statistically there is a big gap between the number of requests of transfer e.g. to Hungary or Italy and the number of factual return-removals which is continuously growing. Also here it was and is the persistence of the migrant movement which literally undermined this EU regulation. Refugees and migrants resist on all levels against the forward shifting of the inner European borders. Wherever possible the disposal of finger prints is refused already in the first country of arrival and where there was executed a deportation to Budapest or Rome the persons affected come back and try it again.
Innumerous return-removals are fought against juridically, are made impossible through church asylums or through direct blockades. The attempt to go against this crisis by means of a numerically rather symbolic distribution of a quota on the EU level has failed in the last weeks, too. At the moment Dublin seems to be a hollow Credible Threat of Force only which is desperately maintained by the rulers merely out of a principle and as intimidation but whose disfunctionality is more obvious than never before (according to this topic in detail the recent edition by http://www.hinterland-magazin.de/).

The bitter defeat tightening of the asylum law
After all in no way we don´t want to draw a rosy overall picture: Dublin is still executed with custody pending deportation in individual cases like currently against the refugee activist in Hannover and maintained as means of threatening. In addition, like feared before, the law concerning the redetermination of the right to stay and terminating of residence was ratified in the German Parliament in the beginning of July (see further down).

This opens up new scopes to deportation authorities to incarcerate especially in Dublin processes. The big achievement of the last years, to have almost beaten custody pending deportation, is now brought up again. This defeat shows us quite plainly the limits of the antiracist movement. Decentralized, variegated and everytime composed newly the resistance against exclusion and deportation has developed very quickly in the last years but this is not sufficient for a well coordinated initiative against a federal law. It remains one of the crucial challenges of the antiracist left.

“Oxi” to the regime of crisis and also of migration…
The second challenge contains the extension with regard to contents and practical “bridges” to other fields of society. For example Greece: It is more than impressive how the “Oxi”, the No of the referendum was carried out by the majority of the Greek general public against the policy of austerity by the institutions. On June 20th there was among other an attempt to organize a big demonstration in Berlin by people from the Blockupy network which should have brought together the solidarity with Greece and refugees. The mobilization remained lowly like currently, after the German dictatory extortion, where there exist calls for protest but they never reach no more than only a small part of the political movement. The problem of mobilization will not be solved by more participation by people of the antiracist movement but even with Greece which is the central current focus according to migrant struggles in Southern Europe these two fields could be easily connected.
Welcome to Europe had prepared a statement before the referendum has passed:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/welcome-to-europe/a-no-is-a-yes-for-a-social-and-democratic-europe-for-all/930463680329738. However further practical alliances aren´t built yet.

From the international Blockupy network there was created an initiative which we mentioned already in our last newsletter edition and which offers another connective approach.
Under the expression of a social transnational strike they invite for a overall process. In the current call for a conference in October in Poznan (see further down) it says: “A new regime of mobility produces hierarchies between and within European regions and tries to restrict the migrant movements from inner and outer Europe. The global chains of production and care work which go crisscross through Europe use the different wage levels and labour legislation for the purpose of profit…At the moment there are numerous struggles for wages, housing space, access to the social system and freedom of movement in Europe. From different approaches they fight against the current attack on our living and working conditions. Facing the transnational European dimension of this attack it is obvious how necessary the overcoming of their isolation is and how important it is to find common priorities.“

With antiracist regards,
the Kompass-Team

Kompass-Newsletter No 41 – _July/August 2015 (pdf)

+++ Day X Demonstration – stop the asylum law tightening! +++ 10th of June in Strasbourg +++ 13 June 2015 in Frankfurt and in several cities in Italy +++ 14 June 2015 in Frankfurt: Network Meeting on Ferries not Frontex +++ As of 15 June 2015: International Week of Action against Deportation Jails +++ 19. – 21.6. in Berlin: Conference from Women in Exile +++ 20.6. in Berlin: Big Demonstration Blockupy and more – Making Europe different +++ 24.6. in Mainz: Demonstration against IMK +++ 30.6. in Essen: Demonstration against European Homecare and for freedom of movement +++ Retrospect: Anti Frontex Days in Warshaw, Ohlauer Schule stays, Büren +++ Prospect: Freedom Ferry on the 6. of September from Tunesia, Social Transnational Strike- Conference starting the 2nd until the 4th of October +++

Dear friends!

“On Saturday the 30th of May, through the media and government sources, it emerged that 4243 people were rescued on the 29th of May in the Central Mediterranean Sea, the largest number of rescues in 2015. 22 rescue operations took place and 17 dead bodies were found on three vessels. Various navy and coastguard vessels as well as merchant vessels were involved in these large-scale rescue operations. We, of course, respect the commitment shown by rescue agencies and sailors who have done the utmost to rescue more than 4000 human lives at sea. At the same time we mourn the loss of 17 lives. They could still all be alive if there were secure paths toward Europe.”
These are the final sentences of a recent report by the Watch The Med Alarmphone (have a look http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/135), to which emergency calls from boat people arrive daily. They are not just crossing from Lybia but also in little boats which try to cross the street of Gibraltar – from Morocco to Spain – or starting from Turkey to the Greek islands. Also in Aegean the arrival numbers are on a record high, but also there again and again people are drowning during the risky flight. “Ferries not Frontex” (look Kompass Nr. 39) is the commandment of the hour!

“Safe access not crazy military inventions” has to be the second slogan because – as exposed by wikileaks – the responsible in the EU would accept once more “collateral damages” during their war planning against “trafficer structures” in Lybia. That there are besides many civil ships (Moas, Medicine Sans Frontieres, Sea Watch) also navy ships (from UK, Island, France, Germany… ) involved in rescue operations is first of all to be considered as a success of the persistent migration movement as well as the on-going social protests and critical public.
Facing the lasting sympathy of wider parts of the population big NGOs are able to obtain donations to finance the expensive services. And our Bundesregierung who did not want to know anything about an increase of the rescue capacities shortly after the last tragedies and rejected any own involvement, now there are two navy ships on the ground on rescue duty and explicitly under the control of Rome and not Warshaw refered to the Frontex Operation Triton since the 8th of May.

Das wäre undenkbar ohne den massiven politischen öffentlichen Druck der vergangenen Wochen, von den Reedern mit ihrer sehr eindrücklichen Erklärung über die Statements von Pro Asyl, Sea Watch und Alarmphone (u.a. für Radio Vatikan!) und nicht zuletzt den vielfältigen Protesten auf der Straße. Ob am 10.6. in Strasbourg oder am 20.6. in Berlin (siehe Kalender unten), jetzt geht es darum, diesen Druck aufrecht zu erhalten und dabei insbesondere die geplanten Militär­einsätze gegen potentielle Flüchtlingsboo­te und “Schlepper” als “infame Verlängerung der Schande Europas” zu denunzieren.

That is unimaginably without the massive policital public pressure of the past weeks; the Reedem with their very clear statement about the statements from Pro Asyl, Sea Watch and Alarmphone (also for Radio Vatikan!) and not least the varied protest on the streets.
If the 10th of June in Strasbourg or the 20th of June in Berlin (have a look at the calendar at the bottom), now it is about keeping the pressure and especially denounce the planned military services against potential refugee boats and “smuggler” as a “disgraceful extension of the same of Europe”.

And once more: let’s combine these struggles against the deadly external borders of the EU with the protest against the inner borders! Because right now inside the Bundestag the law concerning the “revision of the right to stay and the termination of residence” is debated. This draft law contains completely unacceptable tightenings concerning the right to stay which results in massive extensions of arrests of persons seeking protection.
It can be considered as a positive sign of procrastination that the passing of this law has been postponed many times but the re-opening of detention centre in Büren marks the forseeable way of this “reform”. Thats why below this text the last-minute-appeal of the Niedersächsischen Flüchtlingsrat asks to join the pressure-making on the representatives.

Finally: In Frankfurt there will a “Project-Shelter-Demonstration” the 13th of June, which puts the homelessness of migrants and refugees as a subject of discussion. Demanded is a self-organized migrant centre and a supply of social living space (see below). The connection which is made up by refering to the general social question of living seems more than necessary to us. Because there are many tries to finance the necessary payments in the refugee sector from above through cuts in other social sectors and to play them off against each other. And this plays Pegida and Co into their hands.
The same applies to the labour market: against the local splitting and a supposed competition for working places the general insecurity and in this topic the special exploitation of migrants must be focused.
For this purpose there was formed in the last years in some cities “MigrAr” (Migration and Work) – contact points which have been expanded in the mean time through full time consultation bureaus by the trade union for south-eastern european migrant workers. Below you find information and links as well as a hint to the transnational approch of “social strike” which has been formed from an international Bloccupy-Network and in which migrant working struggles against the “government of mobility” play a central role.

PS : The start of the actions against the G7-Top in Elmau took place at the moment of our editing deadline; too late for mobilizing once again and too early to take stock of the situation. We did mention the Anti-G7 Infotour in our last Newsletter and will get back to it in our next issue.

With antiracist greetings,
The Kompass Team

Kompass-newsletter Nr. 40 – June 2015 (pdf)

+++ Ferries not Frontex +++ Bus Tour of the Refugees from O-Platz +++ 8 to 10 May in Berlin: Blockupy Perspectives +++ 14 to 17 May in Münster: BUKO 37 +++ From 14 May: Tour for Freedom of Movement, Autonomy and the Good Life +++ 19 to 22 May in Warsaw: Anti-Frontex Days +++ Retrospective of the Resistance against the Tightening of Asylum Laws: Occupations, Demonstrations, Student Strike +++ Prospect: 10 June in Strasbourg: Action Day for Freedom of Movement +++

Dear Friends!

On 19 April “Ferries not Frontex!” was the immediate reaction of the Watch The Med Alarm Phones to the greatest refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean to this day with more than 900 casualties. The transnational hotline project, which has been supporting boat people 24/7 for more than six months, mentions in its press release who is to be held responsible for these massive deaths at sea. A follow-up text explains why even a second Mare Nostrum would be insufficient and that, on the contrary, a ferry service is what is called for if the casualties at sea are really to be put an end to (see below).
Apart from a few more life boats, the EU’s new 10-point plan is a pure repression and displacement program. Yet what will be done and how depends not in the last place on public pressure. Critical public opinion towards the lethal EU exclusion politics reached into broad parts of the mass media these last two weeks, at least critical voices were solicited everywhere. Even a UNHCR official talked about ferries as a better way and in a video clip a Swedish physician called into question the simple yet ultimately very fundamental issue of why boat refugees do not fly cheaply instead of expensively putting their lives at risk. The answer is clear: the EU visa regime is the problem (see the references below).

The right to freedom of movement is and will remain our central point of departure against the lethal inhumane border regime. For the Mediterranean the concrete proposal for a ‘humanitarian civilly-disobedient ferry’ is doing the rounds, while simultaneously and linked to it the resistance against the internal EU borders continues. The Refugee Bus Tour is at the moment on its way through numerous cities of Germany in order mainly to strengthen the self-organized structures of refugees and migrants. In many places actions against the new tightened asylum laws, which had been prepared for quite a while, have been and are still being carried out these days and in turn merge with the current protests against the ‘leaving-to-die-at-sea’ politics.
Within the polarisation of society, which momentarily manifests itself around the ‘refugee issue’, the blend of self-organized and left-wing antiracist groups is in a stronger position then in the years before. Whether and in how far we succeed in getting concrete improvements in migration policy implemented, or in doing so even kindle throughout society dynamics ‘for more justice’ may become apparent in the aggravations to be expected in the next few months. Our chances have been worse, times seldom were so open ….

In this sense and in solidarity,
The Kompass Crew

Kompass _ Newsletter Nr. 39 – May 2015 (pdf)

+++ From 8 April.: International action day of Roma +++ 10 April to 18 April: action week against the planned tightening asylum law +++ 16 April in Wittenberg: Info-Tour of refugee activists from Schwäbisch Gmünd who is threatened by imprisoning +++ From 18 April: Bustour of Refugees vom O-Platz +++ Stop eviction of Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule +++ Frankfurt, Erfurt, HiIdesheim, Merseburg and again and again Osnabrück: Deportations stops everywhere +++ Retrospect: Struggles against detention centres in UK and Greece, Blockupy 18Zero3 +++ Outlook: Sea Watch at the start; BuKo and G7-Tour in May; Right to global movement: from WSF in Tunis to Action days in June … +++

Dear friends!

“Liberte de Circulation”, the right to global movement, was not by chance the central issue in migration-related workshops of the WSF end of March in Tunis. If and how far the adopted proposal to call from now on to an international action week for movement of freedom in June is to put into practise may be of secondary importance in the first place. It is more important that even in the agenda of big NGOs itself it reflects politically how the situation looks like everyday: an on-going and successful fight against the inner and eternal borders of the EU.
The current arrival number (March 2015) have been increased again, both in the central Mediterranean and in the Aegean. Frontex is with their back to the wall, there lies ahead a truly “hot” summer.
And at the same time there are protest inside the EU against detention, camps and deportations.
Below there are some – also international – reports about new calls and dates which complies within Germany against the planned tightening asylum law.
Like some months ago self-critically mentioned in our newsletter, the campaign against the “harshest and shabbiest one which occurred to a German ministery” (Heribert Prantl in Süddeutsche Zeitung) should have been much more stronger, faced with the diversity of anti-racist initiatives.
But an overlapping coordination was (is) missing and there is a concern that this new concoction of imprisonment and exclusion will be adopted in May from the Bundestag without public and visible resistance.
So here again the invitation to the creative participation during the action days in April.
In an exemplary manner there is developing a resistance against another pillar of the border regime. National wide the praxis of collective deportation stops has been spread.
From Osnabrück viaFrankfurt, Erfurt, Hildesheim to Merseburg: if the police wants to pick up refugees in the early morning in the camps as announced, then there are many people who get in the way of the police and from – literally – a wall of solidarity against the daily injustice of deportation. Go on!

All the best,
the Kompass-AntiRa-Team

Kompass – Newsletter Nr. 38 – April 2015 (pdf)

+++ 7.3. in Potsdam: No camps for women! Abolish all camps! +++ 18zero3 – take a day off: Noborder goes Blockupy III in Frankfurt +++ Starts 24.3.: World Social Forum +++ 27.3. in Hamburg: Farewell for Sea-Watch-Project +++ Criminalization regarding resistance against “Residenzpflicht” in Schwäbisch Gmünd +++ Protest against collective deportations in Ba-Wü +++ Network “Europa für Alle” +++ Greece: If elections could change anything? +++ Reviews: transnational action days in Berlin, Tanger; Push Back Frontex against Rösler – Speach +++ Prospect: 10. until 18.4.: Action week against the tightening of asylum laws +++

Dear friends!

During the days of creating this newsletter: In Dresden there were demonstrating up to 5000 people against racism and for equal rights for everybody the 28.2. (www.feb28.net); “Freie Fahrt am Brenner” is demanded on the first of march by NoBorder activists during an action against racist controls and push backs from Austria to Italy (www.plattform-bleiberecht.at); and on the second of march active refugees gathered in Schwäbisch Gmünd to protest against their criminalization of civil disobediance towards the “Residenzpflicht”.
This information was not known to us in the end of January that is why we could not announce it in the last Kompass.
In the short-term or spontaneous there is almost daily actions and mobilizations against the inner and outer borders of the EU. The information for prospect and review in the newsletter we have compiled for you this time is surely incomplete.

Before, two basic notes and the first one comes as a quotation from a recent text of the “Forschungsgesellschaft für Flucht und Migration”:
“Fortress Europe did not arise with crusades or the Reconquista. It is not 500 years old but 20 to 25 years. It serves the maintenance of the social gap at the Mediterranean Sea which became in the last two decades as deep as never before in a thousand of years historical known history of the Mediterranean Sea area. The living conditions between southern Europe and northern Africa are located in proportion 1:13 (…) With respect to the crisis which is experienced by Fortress Europe right now it is time to have a look into the future: One would like to say that Fortress Europe will be only left as a footprint in history – would not be there the thousands of dead people who are produced by the isolation of the EU and the suffering which is created by the process of impoverishment.
The let-to-die in the Mediterranean, the change of the sea into a mass grave in our days will be reminded as disgrace of Europe and as a crime to humanity. (look http://ffm-online.org/2015/02/12/die-krise-der-festung-europa/#more-28412). We consider this method of approach to rip up the historical context in such a manner as important and interesting regarding the intense recent movements and struggles of migration.
The second note: With Blockupy and the organisation “Europa für Alle” we took two points in this newsletter which reflect the social range in which we want to locate the migrant and refugees struggles.
Whether in connection between the resistance against crisis and borders or bringing together the struggles against racist and exploitative conditions of the EU – internal (Working-) Migration, both complexes stand for the necessary effort of the social expansion from anti-racist initiatives.

All the best,
your Kompass-Team

Kompass-Newsletter No 37 – February 2015 (pdf)